There is a bust of Melina Mercouri on the side of a street below the Parthenon in Athens. It is positioned in a such a way that is looks eternally upwards in the direction of the fabled temple on the top of a classical hill.
It is to sculpture what Opus 113 by Ludwig von Beethoven is to music. This opus is also known as Die Ruinen von Athen.
There is a sassiness in the sculpted features of the lass known as La Melina, which might even remind one so minded of the defiance in the features of the statue of Robert Emmet in St. Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2. His defiance is directed towards the bullet-pocked facade of the, erm, Royal College of Surgeons.
By a peculiar fluke this is the exact same imperial-named institution where recently a (gulp) Fellowship was bestowed on (gasp) The Druidess, no less.
Le chéile, anois:
-For she’s a jolly good fellow, for she’s a jolly good fellow, for she’s a jolly good fe-ell-ow
(pause)
-AND SO SAY ALL OF US !
Garry Hynes (for it is she!) of the Druid Theatre was one of a Troika of distinguished Fellows so honoured of late: she was flanked by BOD on one side and by GOD, oops, the Seamus-who- is- not-as-Famous-as-he-would-like-to- Be on the other. What unites all three in their Jolly Good Fellowship may be gauged by quotes at random:
BOD: ‘Irish players chosen to play for the Lions should forget their nationality before donning the Red Jersey’.
THE MALLON (for it is he): ‘ Upon my oath, the political work I am most proud of was done within the confines of the Mother of Parliaments’.
(The Mallon has been an unusually talkative Talking Head of late. But this need not be of too much concern to those of us who believe in Binn Béal ina Thost. Perhaps Big Ben who has taken a Vow of Silence for the next four years might even reach out a hand to take the Royal Fellow by the Red Hand and bing a little bong in the Fellow’s ear to follow suit. If you do want to bing a bong do not bing an English bong, that sorta thingy).
THE DRUIDESS: ‘No Leprechaun on my watch’.
Now while Melina Mercouri and Garry Hynes both made their mark in the world of the Thespian, there is little danger that a bust (either up or down) will ever be a must to be sculpted to commemorate the Druidess. This has nothing to do, incidentally, with looks (Una Mull forbid !) but rather with outlooks.
While the Druidess is solely identified with the Thespian, the Last of the Greek Goddesses had many other fingers in the mousakka of life.
The reason why the defiant bust of Melina Mercouri is fixed forever in the upwards direction of the Parthenon is on account of the roof which that temple lost and in the process its marbles. Specifically:
-The Parthenon Marbles.
Which were thoughtfully removed by the Earl of Elgin from the Parthenon in the early 1800s and ferried in a transport of Joy Unconfined (registered name of vessel), to Britannia. In whose Museum of Stolen Goods they are now displayed in the E Section:
-E for Elgin.
Melina Mercouri as Minister of Culture made it her unapolegetic priority to have those Marbles returned. Perhaps indeed with Brexit a possibility the Parthenon Marbles might also in turn make their Exit and head for home in the hot Hellenic regions.
The Last of the Greek Goddesses once said:
-I was born a Greek and I will die a Greek.
Meanwhile, in an interview with The Post on the eve of the Feast of St. Patty this year, The Druidess intoned:
-I was born in Ballaghadereen, in county Roscommon, in Ireland. When I was 12 years old, I moved to Galway, my father’s native county. I was the eldest child. My father was a passionate Gaelgóir (Irish speaker). The Garry is actually short for ‘Gearóidín’. My parents spoke to me in Irish and I spoke mostly Irish until I went to school. Most of the other children spoke English and there was some sort of distance (between us) at school, I wasn’t able to say the Hail Mary. I rebelled against (the language) in an ignorant way and I’m probably the least fluent Irish speaker in my family now. As a child, I cherished my own imaginative hinterland. We are all creatures of our imagination’.
Nigh on 40 years later, when handed the reins, the hames, the blinkers and the tackle of Amharclann Náisiúnta na hÉireann (aka The Abbey Theatre) The Druidess continued to rebel against the Leprechaun in – quote – ‘an ignorant way’.
If Melina Mercouri made her name primarily with ‘Never on Sunday’ then The Druidess made it with (deep breath):
-Never of Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday or Saturday.
(Sunday being the day when the curtains of the theatre are pulled down on both the First and Second Official Languages alike).
(To be contd.)
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